Boston Apartment Rents up 3.3% in 2017; Ranks Fifth As Most Expensive City

July 12, 2017 - By The Real Reporter

Newbury Street, Boston MA

BOSTON—Apartment List recently published its July 2017 Rent Report, which examines rent trends on a national and local level, comparing the average rents in the country’s leading urban markets.

According to the report, rents in Boston have increased 0.6% over the past month and are up 3.3% year over year. At the national level, rents increased by 0.5% from May to June. After remaining essentially flat from June to December of 2016, the national rent index has been growing at a rate of 0.5% per month for the calendar year.

The majority of the country’s largest cities have experienced rent growths with 92 of the nation’s 100 largest cities experiencing positive year-over-year growth and 89 seeing increases over the past month. To put Boston’s numbers into perspective, the city with the fastest growing rent in the country, Arlington, TX, has experienced a 9.0% growth rate over the past year and a 1.2% growth rate over the past month.

During the past year, rent has been increasing not just in Boston, but across the entire metro area. Of the 10 largest cities in the Boston metro for which Apartment List has collected data, 9 of them have seen rent growth.

In comparison to other cities across the country, Boston’s median rent prices prove to be less affordable. In Boston, the median two-bedroom rent is $2090 in comparison to the national average of $1,150. To put it into perspective, San Francisco has the highest median two-bedroom rent of $3037 and New York comes in third in the nation at $2,477. Boston ranks fifth on the list for the highest median one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents.

Overall, Boston remains on trend with the majority of the nation’s largest cities with rents increasing each month for a positive year over year growth rate. Read the full report HERE.